According to the song, the race starts at Sunset and Vine between a Corvette Sting Ray and a Jaguar XKE, traveling on West Sunset Blvd. going west, passing North La Brea Ave., North Crescent Heights Blvd., and North Doheny Dr. The original Schwab's Drug Store was located just east of Crescent Heights on Sunset. The North Whittier Drive curve, a nearly 90° right turn traveling west on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive, may be the dead man's curve in the song,[2][3][4] but there is debate on the actual location of the curve.[5] Jan Berry, of Jan & Dean, would later have a near-fatal incident in 1966 when he crashed his own Sting Ray into a parked truck on North Whittier Drive near (not on) Dead Man's Curve.[6]

The song ends with the driver of the Sting Ray relating his last memories of the ill-fated race to a doctor. Crash-like sounds as well as screeching brakes are heard in the song. Deadman's Curve was used as the title for the 1978 biographical nationally televised movie about Jan and Dean.[7]

^Staten, Vince (1990). Unauthorized America: a travel guide to the places the chamber of commerce won't tell you about. Perennial Library. p. 307. ISBN0-06-096514-2. The real Deadman's Curve is on Sunset Blvd. just west of Whittier Dr.

^Kelly, Michael Bryan (1993). Liberty Records: a history of the recording company and its stars, 1955-1971. McFarland & Company. p. 278. ISBN0-89950-740-9. ... and went past the UCLA athletic fields; then he passed 'Deadman's Curve' and turned right on Whittier Drive.